Clinton queries utility of China rights debate

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the debate with China over human rights, Taiwan and Tibet cannot be allowed to interfere with attempts to reach consensus on other broader issues.

Shortly before arriving in Beijing on the last leg of her inaugural trip abroad as America's top diplomat, Clinton told reporters accompanying her that she would raise those contentious issues, but noted that neither side is likely to give ground on them.

Instead, she said it might be better to agree to disagree on long-standing positions and focus instead on U.S.-Chinese engagement on climate change, the global financial crisis and security threats.

Her comments will likely disappoint human rights advocates who were hoping for a repeat of the stance she took nearly 15 years ago when she was first lady and publicly took on and angered the Chinese government in a tough speech on this issue.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gUop4...

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*sigh*

[snooper2]

1. Sure, we wouldn't want to piss off our overlords right...

[get the red out]

2. Be nice to the banker

he holds your loan, ON EVERYTHING.

[karynnj]

3. This is the AP, which has distorted, twisted and taken out of context other Democrats' statements

I am not a Clinton fan, but suspect that this happened here. (I suspect that there maybe was a question like, would you allow human rights abuses from stopping you from working on climate change, finance .....)

[Coventina]

4. In China, Clinton Says Human Rights 'Can't Interfere' With Talks

This is from the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- Human rights violations by China cannot block the possibility of significant cooperation between Washington and Beijing on the global economic crisis, climate change and security threats such as North Korea's nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.

"We pretty much know what they are going to say" on human rights issues such as greater freedoms for Tibet, Clinton told reporters traveling with her on a tour of Asia. "We have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere" with dialogue on other crucial topics.


Clinton's remarks are likely to dismay human rights organizations that have urged her to move human rights near the top of the U.S.-China agenda. Last week, seven prominent groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, wrote Clinton a joint letter calling for her to tell Chinese officials that China's relationship with the United States "will depend in part on whether it lives by universally accepted human rights norms."

The letter noted that in recent years "human rights concerns have been pushed progressively further to the margins of the US-China relationship" as Beijing has gained economic, military and diplomatic power.

[karynnj]

5. Thanks - I should have googled to get other sources nt

[Coventina]

6. I should have posted the Washington Post article in the first place

but I came across the AP article first...

[karynnj]

9. Just want to make clear that I was not criticizing you in the least.

You do a fantastic job putting up relevant, newsworthy articles. I had seen comments by Kerry, dean and others over the last 6 or so years completely taken out of context by some of their writers. Here, their take and the WP are near identical.

[Coventina]

10. Thanks! And no offense taken

I am trying to be careful about the AP, as I have become aware of their "problems". I should seriously consider putting them in the FOX & Xinhua category for suspected bias...

[Seeking Serenity]

7. Sadly, because of our excessive entanglement (thanks for the nifty phrase, President Washington)

with the mainland Chinese, she has to say that. Because the Chinese don't want to hear about their human rights record, and because we are so tied to hip with them, we don't have the necessary leverage to make them listen.

The key to any successful negotiation is the ability to walk away. We can't walk away from the Chinese. Thus, they can continue to keep the boot on the neck of their own people, and we have no leverage to try to make them change.

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. As America's chief diplomat, she is being diplomatic

[marshall]

13. Pragmatism, thy name is Clinton

Recall that Bill advised Kerry to run campaign ads in the south on anti-gay marriage. They both live in the real world and realize that comprises MUST be made in order to achieve larger goals.

[Project Grudge]

11. Rights may take second place on Clinton China visit

Source: Yahoo News

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States will press China on human rights but this will not keep them from working together on the financial crisis, climate change and North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

Clinton, who openly criticized China's human rights record in a 1995 speech in Beijing, told reporters there is a certain predictability to U.S.-Chinese disagreements on political freedoms, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and the status of Tibet.

The United States has long accused China of human rights abuses, has pressed Beijing to grant greater autonomy to Tibet and has sold arms to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090221/wl_nm/us_china_clin...

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When someone holds a large debt over your head there's not much you can say.

[aquart]

12. Even more than that...

It's going to be damned hard getting their cooperation on climate change. They don't regulate anything except childbirth.

[democrat2thecore]

14. Absurd and Shameful

I have read the Clinton quotes elsewhere and was shocked. I then read a few more paragraphs and saw that Amnesty International used the same term - "shocked." It's not a matter of being diplomatic. This is just....well....it sure as hell isn't CHANGE we can believe in (yet again!). What if we had taken this attitude with South Africa in the '80s? So many other examples.

[Psephos]

15. She may be a Democrat but she's definitely not a progressive. n/t